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Culture Snappin’ USA – Part One

Recently I had the good fortune to be able to go to the United States. Time was limited at just under 2 weeks and I elected to go to the places that interested me the most, primarily New York and northern California.

The reason for wanting to go to those cities so much is that I was weaned on 1960s / 1970s movies and pop culture and wished to make an effort to see many of the places I had either seen in movies or only read about in books. Whilst there, I frequently attempted to match the reality with the image… something I call Culture Snappin’ (trademark pending).

Obviously this has been done before, and certainly more successfully. However, to the best of my knowledge, no one calls it Culture Snappin’ and frankly, I’d like to see the name stick. [Click on pictures for larger view].

Dirty Harry (1971)

The Warriors (1979)

Dirty Harry (1971)

Dirty Harry (1971)

Sudden Impact (1983)

Midnight Cowboy (1969)

Play Misty For Me (1971)

Death Wish (1974)

The Enforcer (1976)

Physical Graffiti album cover (1975)

The Lost Boys (1987)

Magnum Force (1973)

Bullitt (1968)

Dirty Harry (1971)

Regrettably, culture snappin’ isn’t always easy. For example, trying to match up a famous photo of Steve McQueen with the exact corner he stole a newspaper from in Bullitt, necessitated me squatting in the middle of the street. This was literally impossible at 5.15 in the afternoon and I nearly had my ass removed by car bumpers in the attempt before giving up and taking this flawed version seen below:

Bullitt (1968)

Similarly, the site of Ricca’s bloody death from 1973’s Magnum Force posed a problem as it is located right near a Freeway exit ramp and similarly requires a middle of the street low angle to pull it off. No easy feat at 3.30pm on a weekday, so this picture doesn’t match as I’d like either.

Magnum Force (1973)

The building featured in Dirty Harry where he pulls a potential jumper from a building, was surrounded by homeless / crazy people at 1.30am when I took this picture. I literally had to wait for the all clear before leaping out of my car and taking the photo as quickly as possible while a basehead looking guy (reminiscent of Flava Flav’s lean years) repeatedly circled the block screaming ‘What time is it’!

Dirty Harry (1971)

While this photo of the Cost Plus store used in Magnum Force (1973) is slightly flawed, I plead circumstance as I was fearful of waking the homeless guy who lay sleeping on the other side of the picture I am holding up.

Magnum Force (1973)

My culture snappin’ was not limited to films either. I also managed to find cultural landmarks such as where John Gotti held meetings, album covers (such as those of Paul’s Boutique and Physical Graffiti), artistic touch stones in Greenwich Village, punk landmarks in The East Village/Bowery and places where Mafiosi met their ends, such as Joe Gallo in Mulberry Street.

Suffice to say, I got 28 GB of photos/video to sort out, so more to come as time and inclination permits. This is also dependent upon people not stealing my shit and claiming it as their own (see post below).

Written and posted by Horatio Cornblower. Copyright 2015. All rights reserved.

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